MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team fell twice in a doubleheader to Lawrence University on Friday, dropping the twinbill by scores of 16-2 and 7-3 to the Vikings. The Cougars drop to 0-4 and are next on the road at Concordia (Minn.) on March 26 for a 1:30 p.m. first pitch in Moorhead, Minn.

Game One: Lawrence 16, Minnesota Morris 2 (5 innings)
Lawrence scored four runs in the top of the first inning and then piled it on later in the game to end the opener after five innings were played. Tyler Carper (0-1) took the loss on the hill as the Cougars were never able to make up the early deficit.

The Vikings opened the game with three consecutive hits to take a 2-0 lead. With one down, a triple cleared the bases for a 4-0 lead before Carper struck out a pair of LU batters to end the frame.

Minnesota Morris left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, but were able to cut the deficit in half with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. A triple from Brendan Carlson scored Lucas Athey and Logan Graves then hit a sac fly that brought in Carlson from third.

Lawrence responded to the challenge by scoring three in the third, helped along by an error that extended the inning. Another run was plated by the Vikings in the fourth to make it 8-2. The floodgates then were opened in the fifth as seven hits and an error contributed to an eight-run inning that pushed the game out of reach. The Cougars would have needed a major rally just to extend the game to another inning and only a walk from Noah Kloss and a hit from Athey followed in the bottom half of the fifth.

Game Two: Lawrence 7, Minnesota Morris 3
An early lead for Minnesota Morris was cancelled out by a three-run fourth inning from Lawrence. After tying the game in the top of the sixth, the Cougars allowed the Vikings to score four runs in the bottom of the inning and come away with a 7-3 win.

The scoring got started in the top of the first for UMN Morris. Evan Benson led off with a single, then stole second and advanced to third on an error. That put him in position to be driven in by a sacrifice fly from Josh Doss for a 1-0 lead. 

Graves got the start for the second game and was solid early on. The Cougars held on to their 1-0 lead until the third when Doss drove in Carper with a single after Carper had walked and advanced on a passed ball.

The Cougars were cruising until the bottom of the fourth when a walk and consecutive doubles from Lawrence knotted the game at 2-2. A RBI single before the end of the inning made it 3-2 and ended the day for Graves on the mound.

Minnesota Morris manufactured a run in the top of the sixth. Joe Pelle drew a one-out walk, stole second, advanced to third on a fly ball from Blake Haugen and then raced home on a wild pitch to tie the score at 3-3. 

The game changed quickly in the bottom of the sixth when three of the first four hitters of the inning reached to load the bases for LU. A triple then brought them all home and a single followed to score the runner from third. Trailing by four runs in their final turn at the dish, the Cougars went down in order to end the game.

Cole Mammenga (0-1) was tagged with the loss in relief. Other than hits from Benson and Doss, the other batter in the lineup with a hit in the second game was Julien Shadle.